Post Nine: The House Begins to Feel Like a Home

We are back up at La Casita again, having needed to take at least one weekend to tend to the business of tending to Ray's personal belongings so his house can be appraised and put on the market. That process ended with Barry and I at the receiving end of some treasured pieces of Ray and Marie's furniture, which for the sake of expediency and our fragile vertebrae, we hired a mover to relocate to Pasquale. We were lucky to find a great company that was able to do the move on Friday, and Johnny and Jorge, at the direction of the manager, Eric (plug for Tana Movers here!) packed up the roll top desk and huge leather-seated chair, the marble-topped sideboard, the round kitchen table and chairs, and most significantly, the big music box. It was interesting to watch their fascination with the old furniture as they needed to dismantle the desk to get it out of it's old home, and especially their interest in the music box. It was heartening to watch and listen to them take very special care of our treasured items, and I think too, that being they were going beyond their usual 100 mile distance, they found our move a bit of an adventure. Upon arrival, Johnny commented on the remoteness.... I told him we had 10 acres here.... his reply "is that necessary?" I replied "absolutely not." He recommended we have some paintball games on the property.

We also hauled up more of our own things -- the small couch from Barry's office, our rocking chair. The old espresso machine and good coffee mugs. Real plates and wine glasses, some placemats, a proper soap dispenser for the kitchen sink. Wastebaskets. We also had taken "the bear chair" and an antique hanging oil lamp from Ray's house and those items were also being woven into the decor.
So, last night we dined on the table that used to be in the corner of the kitchen in Jackson Street, surrounded by the music box, and the sideboard from the dining room there that was primarily the wine opening and staging area for so many of their dinner parties.

We were eating from real plates, the table lit by candles and looking out the front window into the forest.

As with the previous visit, there is a great deal of conversation about what, when and how to make changes. Barry made his first of what will be many, I am sure, visits to the local ACE Hardware; some small tools, a new push broom, Simple Green. He's making a list of items to tend to, one weekend at at time. The plan being to focus on indoor renovations this winter and spring, and focus on the outside when the weather is warmer and drier.

And, we had our first houseguests!  My Mom and Dad came "down the hill" from Truckee around noontime, bringing quiche for lunch which we dined on with some French Onion soup after giving them the tour of the house.  There are a lot of similarities to their place on Tyrol Road, which was, after all, built only one year earlier than La Casita, and to similar specifications.  After lunch, we wandered around outside, and particularly enjoyed helping my Dad select some pieces of downed Madrone he is going to work on making some bowls or candleholders out of.  I love the idea of him being able to create art with some of the wood from the property.  As they departed, my Mom welcomed us as "neighbors", being that we now have property in the same county they live in.

I had had some trepidation about how we would furnish some of the new house. And, ironically, things all magically worked out into a situation where we have an almost perfect setup, and plans to add other things over time. Grandma Kathryn's china cabinet will join the other "antique" furniture in the dining room. The carousel horse will have a place of honor in front of the front living room window. I have been happy to have been aided on that planning process by some software that runs on my iPad and online that lets us map out a floorplan with furniture, all to scale, so we can see what might fit where.

There will be empty spaces and an unfinished feeling to the house for a long time. But, already, it is starting to feel more like home.

Post Eight: La Casita de.... Shurtz

We are finally alone in our new place, with most of the remnants of the previous owner gone. The few pieces of furniture that remain are actually helpful in our half-baked state of occupancy, most especially the bed in the master bedroom. And not just any bed, mind you, but a remote controlled, feet or head elevated, hit the button to select your massage, Tempurpedic bed. But while playing with bed controls can be an amusing pastime, it was simply lying in bed as the sun lit up the trees outside our windows, and marveling at how completely surrounded by the forest we were that was exciting.




When we first got here Friday afternoon, we spent probably an hour walking through each room, discussing the state of the walls, where we wanted to add or change something right away, where we saw potential for improvements longer term. The house is structurally very sound, and really has a lot of potential. The negotiations begin on tearing out cabinets, where to put the furniture.....
One exciting thing was a package at the front door, addressed to "Patricia Shurtz, 14269 Pasquale Rd."... etc. Turns out it was only the installation package for the DLS service from AT&T. But, nonetheless, my name, at this address. Cool.
But, at this point, we were without cell, land phone or Internet, so we built a fire, pulled up my folding camp chair and the All Buzz lounger, put some music on, poured a drink and looked out at the Madrones. Special occasion meant we had a bottle of Trek Syrah and some tasty veal chops to celebrate. Two chairs in the empty room with the huge windows as our entertainment, warm fire in the stove.




After the aforementioned lounging in bed looking out at our surroundings, the balance of that day was spent setting up our communications with the outside world, getting a few provisions, and taking pictures and measuring every aspect of the house we could. The day ended successfully when we at last created our DSL Internet setup and streamed the Niner game as we prepared and ate dinner. Great game, and great meal, as our team went on to the next round of the playoffs, and we filled ourselves with chicken and pasta. I ended my day with a soaking bath downstairs, and was very pleased to have a strong enough Internet connection to stream my guilty pleasure, the ABC Entertainment app, with the previous week's soap operas and night time dramas. These creature comforts are important!




Sunday saw Barry continuing to try to clear about a foot of ice and snow from the back deck and front stairs, some French Toast, more measuring and photographing by me. I sent dirty towels from the upstairs suite down the laundry chute down to the laundry room and put them in the washing machine. Filled the dishwasher and did a quick load. Made sure things were tidy. Marvelled at the sunshine beaming down into the trees behind the house.
We both agreed it was just a teasing taste of our future experience at La Casita. We sat at the counter and had a quick sandwich before loading our stuff into the Subaru, turned down the thermostat, and headed reluctantly back to "reality."